{"id":15215,"date":"2026-10-24T14:50:58","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T18:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=15215"},"modified":"2026-10-24T14:51:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T18:51:03","slug":"klara-and-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/10\/24\/klara-and-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"Klara and the Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Klara and the Sun<\/strong> (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Sci-Fi-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 116 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (thematic elements, some violence, strong language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Taika Waititi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Taika Waititi and Dahvi Waller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Giacchino\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Mike Berlucchi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 23, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jenna Ortega, Amy Adams, Mia Tharia, Aran Murphy, Steve Buscemi, Natasha Lyonne, Rachel House, Jesse Griffin, Harry Greenwood, Sophia Bryant-Taukiri.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0The above quote is from the 1959 classic turkey Plan 9 from Outer Space. The words were spoken by the psychic Criswell in the opening monologue. \u00a0However, I doubt he envisioned the future we\u2019re living in right now or the one we\u2019ll be living in sooner than we think. We already have AI and self-driving cars. Can robot beings be too far behind?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit) directs Klara and the Sun<\/strong>, an adaptation of the dystopian sci-fi novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. I\u2019ve not read the book, but I can\u2019t imagine the film being faithful to the source. Going by the Wikipedia synopsis, it appears to follow the general storyline, but fails to adequately explore the deeper themes it touches upon. In particular, I\u2019m referring to the evolving relationship between humans and AI and how the latter is affecting the world at large. It\u2019s a timely issue that Waititi glosses over in favor of levity and silly humor, a stark contrast to the drama that unfolds in the main character\u2019s new home.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Klara (Ortega, Wednesday) is an Artificial Friend, an outdated model seemingly destined to be melted into parts for newer models. She lives in a store run by \u201cStore Manager\u201d (Lyonne, Poker Face), a quirky sort who acts as mother to the inventory. Klara isn\u2019t your usual AF. She gets her energy from the sun which she sees as a living entity and a god to be worshiped. She often prays to it. She has a sense of wide-eyed wonder like a child. She also possesses empathy unlike her fellow AFs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Klara gets one last shot at being picked before…. well, you know. Lucky for her, somebody wants her. Josie (Tharia, The Education of Jane Cumming) spots her in the store windows and likes what she sees. Her mother Chrissie (Adams, Arrival) isn\u2019t so sure. She tries to talk Josie into buying a more advanced AF from the shop across the street. Josie has her heart set on Klara. She thinks she\u2019s special and luckily, she\u2019s on special.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Klara is then boxed up and taken to Josie\u2019s home in a remote area surrounded by a wheat crop. She\u2019s to be a friend to the lonely 15YO who underwent a procedure called \u201clifting\u201d. Basically, it\u2019s a genetic alerting that turns the recipient into a genius. Unfortunately, the process has serious side effects. Josie is gravely ill, something that everybody knows but doesn\u2019t talk about.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The two girls start to bond over the usual female stuff. Josie gives Klara a wardrobe makeover and helps her acclimate to her new environment. Klara keeps Josie company, watching over her while she sleeps. Then she sees the sun set on a hill behind a barn. She becomes convinced the sun lives in the barn. She decides to pay a personal visit to ask him to shine his healing powers on her new human friend. Okay, maybe not all of it is the usual female stuff.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Chrissie still isn\u2019t sold on Klara. She makes it clear she\u2019ll send her back to the store if she screws up. She\u2019s not the most maternal mom in the world. She\u2019s cold and distant, the result of a family tragedy some years earlier. As I\u2019m sure you can deduce, it\u2019s a front she puts up to mask her fear of losing her daughter. She doesn\u2019t want or need another tragedy in her life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Klara and the Sun<\/strong> is a somewhat frustrating viewing experience. Its tonal unevenness is its biggest issue. It sets up a dystopian world where the internet has been outlawed and the populace divided into social classes that favor the lifted over the unlifted. One thing remains exactly the same though; teens still mock peers who don\u2019t own the right whatevers, AFs in this case. I\u2019m guessing Ishiguro examined this new society more closely in his book. Waititi only scratches the surface in his film choosing instead to hide the melancholy behind his trademark quirkiness and deadpan humor. Instead of a serious treatment of a potential future hell, we get physical comedy involving Klara\u2019s clumsiness as she attempts to calibrate to new environments.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Waititi also botches the emotional content of Klara and the Sun<\/strong>. A movie about a dying teen should tug at the heart more than it does. Instead, the director tries to lighten up the proceedings with comedy that simply doesn\u2019t land. The humor is awkward and out of place. The same can be said of Waititi. He\u2019s not the right director for the material. He takes a serious story and turns it into something like Bicentennial Man complete with an ersatz Danny Elfman score.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jenna Ortega is one of the more interesting young actresses working in film right now. She consistently makes bold choices in the roles she accepts. She\u2019s quite good in Klara and the Sun<\/strong>. She nails it as the child-like Klara who sees the world differently than anyone else, human or AF. She has her unique personality glitches like standing on one leg like a flamingo without realizing it. Ortega imbues Klara with a unique physicality (pay close attention to her movements) and deep emphatic energy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Tharia is pretty good as Josie, a lifted teen who just wants to have a normal teen life. She wants to hang out with her non-lifted boyfriend Rick (Murphy, son of Cillian). She doesn\u2019t want to rub elbows with the snooty, arrogant lifted teens her mother invites over for a party that turns into a bullying session. Josie too is coping with the family tragedy. She lives in its shadow. She accepts it and internalizes her pain. Tharia gives it her all, but the direction lets her down.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Adams does a decent job as a mother not unlike Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People (1980). The only difference is MTM would never even consider an idea like the one Chrissie has about dealing with pending loss. Steve Buscemi (The Only Living Pickpocket in New York) shows up briefly as a slightly sinister associate of Chrissie. I don\u2019t want to give anything away so I\u2019ll just leave it at that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I don\u2019t think Klara and the Sun<\/strong> is a terrible film by any means. It\u2019s just an underwhelming one. It\u2019s disappointingly shallow. The writers (Waititi and Dahvi Waller) take a superficial approach to the source material leaving the deeper themes to just sit there unexamined. What is it they say about the unexamined life?\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Klara and the Sun (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Sci-Fi-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 116 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (thematic elements, some violence, strong language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Taika Waititi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Taika Waititi and Dahvi Waller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Giacchino\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Mike Berlucchi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 23, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jenna Ortega, Amy Adams, Mia Tharia, Aran Murphy, Steve Buscemi, Natasha Lyonne, Rachel House, Jesse Griffin, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-now-playing"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Klara-and-the-Sun-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C918&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15215"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15220,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15215\/revisions\/15220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}